


it's the little things

by EtherealPrince



Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies), X-Men (Movieverse)
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mpreg, Reunions, breakups & makeups
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-24
Updated: 2020-10-24
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:20:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27173716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EtherealPrince/pseuds/EtherealPrince
Summary: Charles has to leave New York and his boyfriend Erik when he gets a teaching job at Oxford that he can't refuse. Months later, when he visits for a week, he finds that he missed a lot more than he initially thought.
Relationships: Erik Lehnsherr/Charles Xavier
Comments: 8
Kudos: 99





	it's the little things

He pussyfoots around it for weeks until Raven literally threatens him.

“Charles, you’re so fucking dumb--I swear to god, Erik’s only going to be angrier if you don’t tell him. This is part of being in a relationship! Communicating!”

He knew how to talk, thank you very much Raven, but Charles had never much been a fan of confrontation.

It wasn’t even that, really. Just a change in his life that he felt was necessary to tell his boyfriend before it was too late. Yet the prospect of letting Erik know was somehow terrifying. In the back of his head, the rational part of Charles knew that Erik would at least be civil and understanding, but the entire rest of him was overcatastrophizing to the extreme. The curse of having an active brain.

In the end, Charles only tells Erik because he feels like he’s going to die if he goes one more second prolonging the peaceful normality of having a romantic relationship that isn’t upended by drama.

They’re laying in bed, in Erik’s manhattan apartment, and it’s sometime after midnight and before morning. Erik is sound asleep, but Charles is practically vibrating with anxiety.

This is the worst time. There cannot be a time worse than this to drop a bombshell on your partner. For god’s sake, Erik had work at seven.

Charles, who was not known for having tact among most people, did not care about that.

He rolls over to face Erik’s broad back, shoulders gently rising and falling with his breathing. Slowly, he uncurls his hand from where he had it tucked against his chest and gently touches the back of his hand against Erik’s spine. He always seemed to run cold, while Charles ran warm--his knuckles were a spot of heat on the expanse of his partner’s back.

Erik shifted in bed, but didn’t make any other move, so Charles moved closer to him. He shuffled the half-foot across the mattress needed for him to tuck himself up behind Erik, touching his forehead to the back of his neck. 

He was small, for an alpha, and Erik was large for an omega. That was what people always said about them.

Erik makes a muffled sound into his pillow.

Charles whispers his name with barely a breath. “Erik?”

His partner makes another sound that this time sounds more like ‘what’.

Charles swallows, and keeps his eyes resolutely on the back of Erik’s head. “I have something I want to tell you.”

It’s quiet for a second, but he sees Erik’s shoulders raise and lower in a sigh and hears him grumble “Now?”

Even though it’s dark Charles knows blood is rising in his cheeks. “Yes, now. Sorry.”

Still grumbling, Erik sits up groggily and reaches over to turn on the lamp beside his bed. The room is cast in a soft orange glow, and they both blink until their eyes adjust.

Erik is all sleep-rumpled and irritated, and Charles bites his tongue so he doesn’t say anything stupid like ‘you look beautiful’.

“What.” Erik says again, clearer but no less annoyed. His eyes look more grey in the light than green.

Charles suddenly regrets doing this. It’s amazing how convincing Erik can be without knowing what he’s being convincing of.

He readjusts his pillow under his arm so he can prop himself up on his elbow, and brushes his hair away from his forehead. 

“I didn’t know...when, exactly, I was going to tell you, but I just can’t take it anymore.” Is the start of his explanation, but Erik shakes his head and makes a motion with his hand for Charles to just get on with it, already, so he does.

“Okay, okay.” He placates him. “I, ah...I got a job.”

And just like that, Erik’s expression lightens up, the wrinkle between his brows disappears, and he seems to wake up twice as fast. He looks happy, and it hurts.

“You did? Where? Why did you wait so long to tell me, schatzilein?”

Charles hopes his expression doesn’t look too apologetic. “Yes, I, um. It’s a teaching job.”

“That’s amazing.” Erik murmurs, and he reaches out to brush his knuckles across Charles’ cheek. “I’m happy for you. What school?”

“University of Oxford?” Charles whispers, like he’s ashamed.

It takes a second for Erik to think it through, but he does. 

“Oxford, in England?”

“Yeah.”

Charles can practically see the gears turning in Erik’s brain from the face journey he’s going through, from amazed to confused to dismayed. His tone is a lot less firm when he speaks next. 

“...Are you going to take it?”

That’s the thing, Charles thinks, and he can feel himself getting nauseous. “That’s the thing, Erik, I...already said yes.”

Now Erik looks a lot less happy. He looks stressed. Charles hates himself.

“I’m leaving this weekend.” He provides, probably unhelpfully.

He’s right--Erik looks at him like he had just slapped him across the face.

“Why would you…” He falters. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

It’s a horrible excuse, but Charles gives him the only one he’s got: “...Because when they sent me the email I said yes without thinking, and half an hour later they emailed me back with plane tickets?”

Erik scoffs. He’s hurt, and Charles can tell, and it hurts him too.

“So you’re going off to England this weekend. For the foreseeable future.”

“Yes.”

“Did you tell Raven?”

This is another hard part. “...Yes.”

Erik scowls at him and sits up straight, green eyes now as sharp as a knife’s edge while they stare Charles down.

“So, this.” Erik says, motioning between himself and Charles. “This doesn’t matter enough to you to tell me you were _moving to England?”_

“No, it does--” Charles starts, but then he realizes he has no good argument. “It does, I promise you, I just got...caught up in everything.”

Another scoff.

“You can come with me.” He insists, and Erik gives him a withering look. “You can. I can book you on my flight, and we can pack up and move together.”

“Have you already cleaned out your place?” Erik asks him, but it sounds more like an accusation.

Guilty. Erik knows he is from the look on his face, and he looks away from Charles for a moment, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“You know I can’t drop everything and come with you, Charles…” He sighs. “I have a good job, I have friends--my mother lives in town, I can’t leave her.”

Charles knows all of this. All of his friends used to be Erik’s, and he has no family alive except Raven, who is already an international woman of mystery and travels all over the place. Besides the family fortune in his bank he has nothing to stay for, and at least banks are all online now. He feels horrible just for proposing the idea that Erik join him in Oxford.

For once, he has nothing to say except a weak agreement. “...I know.”

When Erik turns his gaze back toward Charles, there’s something quiet and painful in his eyes that he can’t stand to look at.

“Was it something I did?”

That makes Charles absolutely panic.

“No! God no, my darling, you did nothing wrong.” Charles insists, sitting up to grasp Erik’s shoulder. “I truly, truly just acted without thinking. It’s the...it’s the opportunity of a lifetime, and in a perfect world I want you to share it with me. I _love_ you.”

“Not enough to tell me you were leaving.”

Charles wilts, and his hand slides down Erik’s arm to the crook of his elbow where it rests limply.

“I do. I do love you, Erik. Please don’t think that I don’t.”

“I believe you.” Erik says quietly, and relief flares up in Charles’ heart before it’s tamped down again just as quickly. “But if you’re going to leave this weekend then I don’t think this can work anymore, obviously.”

The meaning of This goes without saying, and Charles’ heart sinks.

“We can still text, call--I can visit. We don’t have to break up over this, Erik, really.”

Erik shakes his head. “We can do all that, yes, but we’re not the long distance relationship type. It wouldn’t last, you know it wouldn’t. It would be easier to just…”

Another sigh.

“...You know. To break it off now so that no one gets hurt.”

Charles can see plain as day that Erik is already hurt, but as horrible as it is, he makes a point. Raven already had to bother him for days to get him to return her calls--with Erik, it’d be the same, but he wouldn’t be patient enough to wait for Charles to get back to him.

A lock of hair fell over his eyes again, and he pushes it away half-heartedly. “So. So, we’re--over?”

“Yes.” Erik says, and there’s a tangible hollowness in his voice. “As much as I don’t want us to be. I don’t want to get in the way of you and your future.”

Charles didn’t want them to end either, god, he wanted to stay in this bed with Erik for the next twenty years, but that isn’t how the world works. It was either stay here, in New York, with his measly income brought in by online teaching, or go to Oxford and teach the course of his dreams, at the college of his dreams.

Erik wouldn’t be able to come with him. They weren’t officially bonded, thank god, or otherwise this would be ten times as hard, but it still hurt. Charles wanted his future to be with Erik, he wanted to marry him and move in with him and raise a family with him.

He wanted it, but you don’t always get what you want. Or rather, you got one thing you did at the expense of the other. This was that.

And Erik had seemingly already decided which Charles would be better off taking, so the choice was no longer his. He was going to Oxford.

Charles lays his hand on the opposite side of Erik’s face to him and turns his head so that they’re looking each other in the eye. 

“Just--” He falters, palm soft against his partner’s scruffy cheek. “Just, when I’m gone, please remember that none of it was your fault. Okay?”

It sounds like someone’s last words, but Charles has no other way he can say remember me without sounding too melodramatic. He’s going to miss Erik terribly.

Erik sighs, closes his eyes, tilts his head down and into Charles’ hand. “I will.”

There is some solace in those words, this recognition that the two of them aren’t parting on bad terms and that no ill will shall be harbored between them. It could be a lot worse. 

Charles knows they love each other; it was obvious in every meaningful touch of their hands, every little useless fact they remembered about the other, every time Charles bought Erik suppressants and every time Erik defended Charles from other alphas who made fun of him for being ‘weak’. They had known each other for five years, dated for two, and they had loved each other the entire time.

He is confident he will love Erik even when he is across the ocean, and he will love Erik even if he never sees him again.

Charles leans up, forward, and catches Erik’s lips with his own. Erik returns him with a sigh out.

His hand slips off of Erik’s face and falls to his upper thigh. There is a hitching of breath in from his partner, then, and Charles slowly eases Erik onto his back in the sheets with firm but gentle pressure of his hands on his shoulders. Erik concedes easily.

He pulls his head back, just for a moment, and their eyes meet. Blue on green.

Charles’ eyes are wet, and even in the shadows cast over Erik’s face he can see that same wetness in his.

As the clock ticks over to 2:45 in the morning, Charles drives himself into Erik and holds him as close as he can while he hides tears in his shoulder, and Erik breathlessly begs him for _more, harder,_ while the both of them try not to think about the coming weekend.

By Saturday evening, Charles is halfway across the ocean, and Erik had called off work for the day.

\-------

Charles starts teaching at Oxford that fall, in October.

He is Professor Xavier, teacher of classes GE-101 and GE-111, Introduction to Genetics and Advanced Genetics. He’s young for an Oxford professor, but incredibly intelligent, and fits in nicely among the staff. 

Charles makes friends, surprisingly enough. Betsy Braddock, a beta psychology professor, has an office on campus right next to him and they get along famously. She introduces him to her friends, and soon enough he has a small gaggle of adults who he can call his companions and go out on the town with.

It’s a wonderful life--Charles has the job he’s always wanted and he’s happy in his workplace, he gets to meet incredible young people interested in the field of genetic science, and he has adult friends who respect him and treat him like a normal person and don’t point out his height or stature and call it ‘un-alphalike’. 

That winter between terms, Charles spends the entirety of the break cooped up in his apartment in town, grading papers and planning for next term. He’s absolutely swamped in work and is still getting a hang of his teaching style, so he locks himself up at home and works until his fingers can’t hold a pen or type anymore. It’s worth it, though, for the hours he’s spent on campus with brilliant students and their amazing minds.

The Hilary term in late winter-early spring goes a lot smoother, fortunately.

Charles finally feels like he’s found his groove; he’s not overworking himself, but he’s not lazing around with nothing to do. He’s making a name and reputation for himself among his coworkers and he was invited to a staff party to celebrate the coming of the new year.

And then Raven texts him from America and asks him--no, she demands for him to come back home for spring break because she’s having a party.

For what? Charles had asked her. To that, she had replied that ‘can’t I just have a party as an excuse to see my loved ones?’ and he couldn’t say no to that.

Break was in April, and Charles thought he had maybe a week or slightly less to be in New York before he had to come back home and keep working. He could make the time if he put more of a daily workload on himself, he concluded, so he did.

By the time classes let out, Charles was exhausted, but he had plane tickets back to New York and Raven was expecting him at her place that week. 

It’s been seven months since he left.

He bids Betsy goodbye a day after the term ends and hops on a plane back to New York--it’s late when he arrives, and he’s jetlagged as all hell, but Raven turns up to take him back to her apartment, where they decided he’d be staying.

“I don’t know what I’d do without you.” Charles had moaned, collapsing in the passenger seat of her car and immediately falling asleep. Raven just laughed, and let him rest on the drive from JFK airport to Brooklynn.

It was nice being back in New York. It took a day or so for Charles to acclimate to the climate and shrug off his lag, but once he did he and Raven spent a lot of time touring Manhattan and hanging out around the boroughs, just like they did when Charles still lived there and Raven happened to be in town. On a walk by the pier on the Brooklynn Promenade, she recites to him the guest list for her party:

“It’s going to be super casual, so there’s not going to be, like--twenty people there. Let’s see,” She says, beginning to count on her fingers. “Sean, Alex, Moira, Hank, Armando, Angel, and Erik.”

Charles had been sipping something bitter from Starbucks and he nearly spat it back into his cup by the end of her list. She gives him a look like he’s not all there-- “You okay, Charles?”

“Yes, yes, I’m fine--” He gasps, fanning his mouth and breathing in cold air through his teeth. “--just, ah. Erik’s coming?”

She nods slowly. “Yeah. Is that gonna be a problem?”

“Not at all,” He insists, despite the anxiety now brewing in his stomach. “Not at all. We’re on good terms, it’s fine.”

“Oh, okay.” Raven says, drawing out the ‘oh’. She quirks an eyebrow at him and smirks, like that was funny to her, but doesn’t say anything more on the subject even though he shoots her a questioning stare.

Raven’s party is on a Friday night, and she shoos Charles out of the apartment building to go get Sangria because it was obvious he was too nervous to be in the room when guests started showing up.

It was really just Erik, of course. He had no idea how the night would go once they were in each other’s general vicinity--he didn’t even know if Erik knew he was going to be there or not.

He guessed he’d just have to find out when the time came.

One alarmingly tense trip to the nearest drugstore later, Charles is standing in Raven’s building’s lobby and pacing back and forth.

_Have people turned up yet?_ He texts her, and it takes a minute for him to get anything back.

_yea_

Wonderful, he thinks. So if he makes a fool of himself in front of Erik he’ll also be making a fool of himself in front of other people he knows.

He can’t resist his next question: _Is erik there?_

_yea lol you kno hes always early to everything_

Charles very lightly thunks his head against the wall.

When he entered Raven’s apartment again, Erik would be there, and he had no idea what to say to the man about _anything._ Just like Erik had said it would, their texting each other had gotten more and more infrequent while Charles was gone, and now tonight the last time they had spoken was a month ago--and even then it was brief.

Maybe he should take this cheap bottle of wine and go drink it himself, Charles thinks, before he tells himself to stop being an idiot and just rip the band-aid off already. It’d be weirder if he didn’t show up, obviously, and he didn’t want anybody to be worried about him so he just had to bite his tongue and swallow his pride and just fucking talk to Erik, god damn it.

It didn’t have to be dramatic! Just a simple ‘hello, how are you?’ and that would be fine. Charles had loads of things to tell Erik about Oxford, anyway, and missed him very much, so hopefully Erik felt the same. Maybe everything would be fine and they’d talk like normal, civilized people. And then Erik would leave, and Charles would be alone with his sister again, and his heart would stop trying to beat itself out of his chest.

Maybe. The key word here was maybe.

Charles groans, and jams the button to call the elevator down the lobby with a violent poke of his index finger.

There’s muffled noise coming from Raven’s apartment down the hall when he steps onto her floor, and he looks toward her door with dread. There’s a mirror hanging on the wall across from the elevator doors, and Charles looks at himself in it, fixing his hair and swiping his tongue over his teeth. Good enough.

Raven answers him when he knocks on the door, forgetting that it had stayed unlocked for guests. He holds up the bottle of wine silently and Raven pats him on the back, leading him inside after closing the door for him.

“Stop freaking out, you big baby. Here--” She takes the bottle, and then makes a vague motion toward the rest of the apartment at Charles. “--Last I saw Erik he was on the balcony with Hank, go look for him out there.”

Charles nods and gives her a tight smile, but it is possibly the worst one she’s ever seen because she winces. Asking her if Erik was in a good mood would be stupid, so he bites his lip and shuts up before he goes looking for him.

Sure enough, there are two tall figures silhouetted out on Raven’s apartment balcony, behind the half-open sliding door, so Charles nervously approaches them. He can’t tell which one’s Hank and which one’s Erik from behind, they’re too similar, but when he raps lightly on the glass they both turn around and--

Hank is looking between Charles and Erik like someone just said something damning to the other, but other than that he’s still the gangly, nervous scientist Charles knew when he left New York.

Erik--Erik is. 

He’s wearing a sweater with a turtleneck, because of course he is, and he’s still every bit as handsome and green-eyed as Charles remembers him to be, and. And he’s very obviously pregnant.

Charles’ jaw is no doubt hanging open, and his eyes are so very desperate to stay on Erik’s face instead of any other part of his body, but for some reason he can’t make himself stop doing either of those things and just stands there like an idiot. Night fully ruined, in any case.

Hank quickly sidles out into the apartment around them and out of sight, and that’s what makes Charles snap out of it. His jaw clicks closed, and he fumbles for words there in the doorway before Erik tugs him outside by his sleeve, then reaches around and slides the glass door shut behind him. The fresh air outside is warm and humid.

Charles doesn’t even have a drink, and he needs one. He looks down just slightly, and sees that Erik is holding a glass of what is probably water.

He also sees that he’s leaning against the railing, with his free hand tucked in close to his side and his fingertips just brushing his lower stomach. It’s harder to see in his dark shirt and in the dim lighting but he’s definitely breathing kind of hard. 

No wonder, Charles thinks. He knows nothing about pregnancy but automatically has an urge to make Erik sit down somewhere.

As if he were reading Charles’ mind, Erik raises an eyebrow at him. “Hello, Charles.”

Charles swallows hard. “Hi.”

“I didn’t know you were coming.”

“Well…” Charles stammers. “Here I am.”

“Mm.”

Charles stands there awkwardly, still in his jacket, while Erik’s eyes appraise him like he was being interrogated. Charles is the one that has more questions, in any probable case.

After opening and closing his mouth one too many times in an attempt to speak, Erik rolls his eyes and drains the rest of his glass, setting it down on the little table Raven had outside next to a chair.

“How have you been.” Erik asks, and Charles can’t take it anymore.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

That was not the answer Erik had been expecting, obviously, and he looks at Charles strangely before answering himself.

“I didn’t think it would be relevant to you.”

“What--” Charles motions to the entirety of him, to his careful stance and the curve of his abdomen. “What, is it not mine?”

Erik’s eyebrows knit together. “No,” And Charles’ eyes widen, until Erik finishes: “No, it’s. It’s yours.”

Something leaves Charles in the breath he heaves out, then, but there’s still a weight on his shoulders.

“When?”

Erik knows what he’s asking.

“My best guess is right before you left. At my place.”

Charles counts in his head-- “So you’re- seven months?”

“Around that, yes.”

“Why didn’t you _tell me?”_ He asks again, and this time he can feel an itchiness behind his eyes that lets him know he’s about to cry in front of his ex.

“I told you,” Erik sighs, and he looks away over the balcony. “I didn’t think it would be relevant.”

_“Relevant to me?”_ Charles asks, agape. “It’s my _child!”_

Erik looks back to him, looking stern, but there’s something different in his eyes, his voice. “You left.”

“I would have dropped everything and came back if you told me.”

Erik looks disbelieving and Charles steps forward to meet his eyes, getting close-but-not-too-close. “I would have, Erik. Fuck the job. I would have come back the moment you said anything.”

Already, he’s thinking about his old apartment in Manhattan, what it would take for him to get a place big enough for him, Erik, and the baby. He’s thinking about his email of resignation from Oxford, what he’d say to the headmaster in it, what he’d take from his home in England to bring back to New York to stay.

He wants to stay. God, he wants to stay so bad. He regrets ever leaving in the first place.

“Would you have?” Erik says quietly, and there’s something like regret in his tone that makes Charles want to cry.

“Yes,” He whispers, looking up to meet his eyes. “Yes, of course. I’m so sorry, darling. I should never have left.”

“You didn’t know.” Erik mutters. “I made the choice not to tell you.”

Still, Charles wants to insist, he wouldn’t have had to make that choice if he just stayed in New York. He wouldn’t have had to be alone through the pregnancy up until now. Until now, because Charles has already made the decision to stay. He’s going to fly back to England to tie up loose ends and then he’s immediately going to return for Erik, to his family.

“Do you still love me?” Charles murmurs, hopeful but terrified. 

Erik looks at him like the answer was obvious, which it was. “Yes,” he murmurs back. “I never stopped.”

“I’m staying.” Charles tells him. Erik’s eyes widen. “Well, I may have to make one last trip overseas to get my things, but after that I’m not going anywhere. Not ever again.”

Erik is quiet. He looks surprised, but guilty, and it’s the last expression Charles would ever want to see on his beautiful face.

He raises his hand slightly, palm out, before he falters. “You’re keeping the baby- right?”

“Yes.” Erik answers him, and then he takes a deep breath in and swipes his thumb under his eye. His cheek is glistening wet where the light hits it. “It’s a boy.”

A boy. Charles has a son.

He must have sobbed or stumbled on his feet, then, because Erik reaches out and grips his bicep, seemingly to steady him. He has this rueful kind of smile on his face which is softer and more gentle than anything Charles has seen him express, close-lipped for once instead of showing off all his teeth.

“I have, uh.” Erik starts, letting Charles go. “They gave me a copy of my six month ultrasound and I have it in my wallet. If you want to...see.”

“Yes, god, of course I want to see.” Charles says maybe a little too eagerly, but Erik’s smile turns toothy and he reaches into the back pocket of his jeans to pull out his wallet so he knows he didn’t mess anything up. Erik flips his wallet open and pulls a folded up piece of paper out of one of its folds, and to show Charles he turns it toward the light coming from inside Raven’s apartment.

It’s definitely a screenshot of a sonogram, and that is most definitely a fetus, Charles concludes. It has a head and limbs and everything. He’s leaning in close to Erik to look at it, and their shoulders are touching.

Charles takes a shaky breath in and breathes it out. “Wow.”

Erik huffs a laugh. “I said that too.”

“I know it’s completely nonsensical to say it right now, but he’s beautiful.” Charles says, and that gets a real laugh out of Erik. 

“He is--and healthy. The ultrasound technician said he has my nose.”

At that, Charles lights up, and with a laugh of his own he lifts a finger to delicately trace along the bridge of the baby’s nose, clearly silhouetted in the picture. “He does! Look at that.”

He’s entranced. He’s awe-stricken, he’s amazed, that he and Erik had made an entirely new human being from scratch together and that he was alive, living and moving under Erik’s skin. Charles has a son and already he’s so excited to be a father.

Erik side-eyes him while he’s absorbed in the picture--he can feel his gaze on the side of his head. Charles looks up to meet his eyes, and they look impossibly fond.

Without thinking, Charles surges forward and kisses Erik, both of them still holding on to the ultrasound picture. He slides his free hand around Erik’s waist, thumb stroking the side of his stomach, and he’s so warm. He doesn’t run cold anymore.

There’s a whoop from inside, and they lean away from each other for a moment to see Raven, with Hank and Moira behind her, giving them excited grins and thumbs-up aplenty.

Charles has half a mind to berate Raven about not telling him that his ex was pregnant, but right now he doesn’t care. He feels pleasantly giddy, like he had drunk a glass and a half of good wine, and Erik isn’t angry with him, which feels better than anything else in the world.

Erik turns his head into Charles’ and brushes his lips to his hair, just above his ear.

“I love you.”

When Charles looks up at him it almost seems like Erik wasn’t sure about what Charles’ response would be, and he briefly kisses the corner of the omega’s mouth to reassure him.

“I love you too.”

And then Charles looks down, then back up, asking for permission. Erik huffs, smiling. “Go ahead.”

Charles picks his hand up again and gently splays it over Erik’s stomach, marveling at just how _warm_ he is. He doesn’t feel anything in particular, but the knowledge of what is under his hand is enough to floor him.

“He usually--here.” Erik murmurs, taking Charles’ hand and moving it lower on his abdomen. “He usually kicks around here when he’s awake.”

Charles keeps his hand there to see if baby decides to act up for him, but he feels nothing. Erik, however, seems to feel otherwise.

Charles gives him a look.

“You don’t feel that?” Erik asks him, then shrugs. “Might just be me. Easier to feel from inside, I guess.”

“I still think it’s amazing.” Charles murmurs, tilting his head up to kiss him again. “You’re amazing. Thank you.”

“What for?” Erik chuckles, smiling against Charles’ lips. 

“For doing this. For making us parents. You didn’t have to.”

Erik tilts his head down and pulls Charles close with an arm around his side, sighing.

“I’ve always wanted to have a family with you, schatzilein.” He says, and hearing that pet name makes a shiver (a very good shiver) go up Charles’ spine. “I wanted him from the beginning.”

“Even when I wasn’t there?”

“Even when you weren’t there.”

Charles turns his head away from Erik’s for a moment, blinking back tears. When he turns back, his eyes are still wet.

“How are you for money- are you on leave from work?” He asks, eyes closed and head resting against Erik’s shoulder.

“I’m fine, Charles. Just fine.” Is the answer. It’s relieving to hear--hopefully Erik hadn’t been suffering in silence during the long months of Charles’ absence.

He’s fine. Charles is fine. They’re fine. All three of them.

\-------

Regrettably, Charles and Erik part for the night after Raven’s party has winded down considerably. Besides basking in the glow of impending parenthood and the plan to move back to New York, Charles has a great time catching up with old friends and puts up with the teasing about his reaction to Erik. Sean almost kills him by making him laugh so hard he thought he was going to pull something, and somebody has to tell Alex to stop yelling at some point, and it’s wonderful.

Erik had left Raven’s apartment tired but happy. Charles kissed him goodbye and turned around to see Raven as she tackled him, noogied him, and laughed at him all the way to bed. He sleeps the best he has in a while.

Charles is fully absorbed in moving plans the rest of the time he’s in New York, and Erik comes over to Raven’s apartment again to assist the two of them in helping him find a place to live. They talk about possibly moving in together, and decide that Charles should get a place of residence on the larger side just in case--he certainly had the money for it.

The apartment is secured by the end of the week, and Charles has a meeting scheduled with Oxford’s headmaster by the time he boards his plane back. Erik had gotten a new phone and given him his new number, and they exchange a few words before Charles heads back to England.

_I'll be back soon._

_We’ll be waiting._

Charles is sad he has to leave his teaching career overseas, but Raven had told him that Columbia University was hiring, and by the time he’s ready to return to America for good he’s been emailing back and forth with people there for a good week or two. He’s going to move into his new apartment with Raven and Moira’s help, and he’s going to see Erik again, and he’s so excited he can hardly stand it.

Shortly before he returns, he gets a text from Erik one night that lights up his phone in the dark where he’s trying to sleep. After fumbling to get his phone unlocked and opening his messages, he’s met by the most amazing thing he’s ever seen--

It’s a picture taken from inside a hospital, of his beautiful omega, who is holding their son in his arms. There’s a bracelet with Erik’s name and date of birth stamped on it around his wrist, and a similar one around their son’s ankle. He’s tiny and soft and perfect. Erik has one of the baby’s hands wrapped around his index finger, and there’s an IV line in the back of his hand, and he looks exhausted, but to Charles he’s never been more handsome.

The text that follows the picture reads:

_David Lehnsherr-Xavier, July 10 4:32 am, 6.7 lbs._  
_(Picture courtesy of Raven Darkholme)_

Charles laughs and cries and doesn’t sleep for the rest of the night, overwhelmed with joy.

\-------

When he returns to New York with no plans to leave again, Charles flies into JFK expecting Raven to pick him up just like she had done back in April. After a 9-hour flight he’s dragging himself from his gate back to baggage claim, maneuvering through crowds of people just as sluggish and zombielike as he felt, and when he’s out in the open halls of the front of the airport again he looks for blonde hair and a waving hand.

He doesn’t find it. What he does find, however, is Erik--and David.

Charles drops his suitcase and rushes up to them, tears already threatening to roll down his cheeks, and collides with Erik in a kiss.

Erik grasps him around the waist and kisses back, but then he pulls away and Charles turns his attention to his son, who he is meeting for the first time.

David is fast asleep, swaddled in Erik’s arms, but he’s breathing and holding onto his blankets and he’s the most wondrous thing Charles has ever had the privilege to lay his eyes on. He uses the back of one finger to delicately stroke his cheek, to admire the softness of his skin.

“Your son.” Erik whispers, and Charles takes a breath in as a sob. He leans his head against Erik’s chest and the rumble of his partner’s laughter is like distant thunder.

“God.” Charles gasps. “I love you.”

He’s talking to both of them.

Erik kisses the side of his head and guides them both back to his suitcase, gently moving Charles to pick it up again.

“You’re staying with me tonight.” He tells Charles as they make their way out to the subway entrance from the airport. “We’ll help you move in tomorrow--and you need to get used to David waking you up at night.”

Charles laughs tearfully as he walks shoulder to shoulder with Erik, unable to keep himself from staring at David. No matter how much that child kept him up, he knew he wouldn’t care. He had missed so much of his life already, he wanted to stick around for the entirety of the rest of it.

“I swear,” He promises both Erik and David. “I swear I’m not going anywhere.”

Erik nudges him in the shoulder with his own, grinning. “I know, schatzilein. We’re happy you’re back.”

**Author's Note:**

> and then they move into charles' apartment together and get married and maybe have more kids and everything's HAPPY, GOD DAMN IT.
> 
> please tell me what you think comments are very important and a great way of inspiring more work from your favorite authors <3333


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